Amateur sleuth Aggie Mundeen, focused on a romance with Detective Sam on San Antonio’s River Walk, finds humor, mischief and murder.

“A fun cozy series that showcases the beauty and quirkiness of San Antonio.” – Rosemary Smith, Librarian

Advice columnist Aggie Mundeen and SAPD Detective Sam Vanderhoven plan their first rendezvous at a San Antonio River Walk hotel during Fiesta Week—sumptuous sights, sounds, and festivities in the middle of America’s Venice. A vacation from crime and a reset for their tumultuous relationship. But murder descends on the Casa Prima Hotel. Disturbing revelations surface about the Fabulous Femmes, Aggie’s new friends holding a convention. Evil emerges at parties in La Villita. Calamity plagues Aggie’s debut dance performance at the Arneson River Theater, the celebration skewed by carousing, crazies, and corpses. Even in idyllic River City, crime complicates relationships.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

While writing her award-winning suspense novel, Nine Days to Evil, a funny thing happened. Supporting character Aggie Mundeen demanded that Nancy write about her. Aggie's first caper, Fit to Be Dead, was Lefty Award Finalist for Best Humorous Mystery. Dang Near Dead was named a “Must Read” by Southern Writers Magazine. While writing award-winning suspense, Nine Days to Evil, Nancy experienced a peculiar event. Supporting character Aggie Mundeen insisted that Nancy write about her. Aggie was on to something.

Top customer reviews

Aggie Muldeen solves another murder in River City Dead by Nancy G. West. In this fourth installment in the series, Aggie has moved to San Antonio, TX to begin a new chapter in her life. While she adjusts to her new surroundings, a romance intensifies with detective Sam, a character introduced in previous books. They are drawn together by personal tragedy.The mystery steps along briskly with interesting characters, humorous situations, and Aggie's unfailing determination to solve murders. She is a likable character, a combination of Lucille Ball's character in I Love Lucy with her disarming personality and physical comedy, an advice columnist like Dear Abby, and a talented investigator like Angela Lansbury's character Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote.A hotel by San Antonio's famous Riverwalk is the setting for the murder and it takes place during Fiesta, a time of parties, parades, and Fiesta royalty.Aggie and Sam's romantic weekend is abruptly halted when a young woman's body is discovered in the same suite reserved for them. Sam is ambivalent about Aggie's indefatigable and impetuous determination to help Sam solve murder mysteries; he fears for her life and does not want to lose someone else that he loves.The parallel structure of their romance and the murder investigation creates tension and interest to the storyline. Aggie's deductive skills make River City Dead an enjoyable read along with historical and cultural tidbits about San Antonio's Fiesta events, the Alamo, and the architecture along the San Antonio River.

River City Dead by Nancy G. West is the fourth book in her Aggie Mundeen Mystery series.... It is the first book in this series that I have read. Fortunately I wasn't lost reading it. I know in a perfect world we want to read a series from the beginning. however, as a book reviewer / blogger that seldom happens. It is always a concern when reading a book well into the series that you will be lost or fear that you won't be able to enjoy the story. HAVE NO FEAR because River City Dead is not like that.

As soon as I started reading River City Dead I was engrossed in the story and felt like I was a long time friend of Aggies. And the setting....smack dab in the middle of Fiesta Week !! Oh what a thrill !!

Aggie and her Detective boyfriend are meeting at a hotel where the festivities are taking place. Aggie of course is very excited until she gets there and finds out someone has died....in the penthouse suite that Sam had reserved. As if that isn't bad enough when Sam lets her look in at the crime scene Aggie recognizes the deceased. It is her neighbor and friends daughter in-law and they all had lunch recently.

Sam has to be there to help in the investigation when it is ruled a homicide. Aggie refused to leave and go home when she knows she can help with the investigation. And she has a strong desire to have the case solved and give the girl and her family peace.

While Sam is doing his part, Aggie is investigating some of the other guests at the hotel who also knew the deceased.

Who will solve the case ? Will Aggie get herself in trouble ? Can Aggie and Sam trust each other and strengthen their relationship ?

Even though this is the first book that I have read in this series, I can assure you that it is not my last !! I need to know more about Aggie and where things are heading with Sam.....

It is Fiesta time in San Antonio and Aggie and Sam have planned a getaway to reconnect and stabilize their relationship. The getaway is supposed to remove them from the day-to-day routine and get them out of the line of crime solving, if only for a few days. Staying at the hotel is a group of women known as the Fabulous Femmes. When one of the Fabulous Femmes is found murdered in her penthouse suite, all thoughts of Sam and Aggie's rendezvous are pushed to the back burner. As Sam and Aggie work together (mostly) to solve the crime, another woman is murdered in the hotel. In order to put the pieces together that Aggie has found, she must go against Sam and puts her life, and the life of the Fabulous Femmes theater group that she's part of, in danger.

River City Dead takes the reader all over the place as both Sam and Aggie try to figure out why Fiesta guests are being murdered. Since the bodies have no trauma, the investigation also includes how the murders are being carried out. As it has been in the previous books in the series, there are different threads to the craziness that don't seem to be connected. As the book progresses, all of a sudden something will happen or something will be said and everything falls into place.

Aggie is really good at fleshing out ideas, possible motives, and those who may be involved. Aggie's inability to not put herself in danger is a plot point that was starting to get old but really rounds itself out in River City Dead. She still put herself and the Fatal Femmes in danger in this book but I liked how the author wrote the scene. Aggie's decision was spontaneous and written very well. Aggie doesn't really recognize the impact of her decision until later in a conversation with Sam. The impact of her decision on a personal level in regards to Sam also slams into her because she knows he's mad. There is a lot of growth in Aggie's character in that last little bit of the story.

I enjoyed the plot and continued character development and world building. We were reminded of the important back story information in just the right dosage - not too much, not too little. The book is a quick and easy read that will keep the reader engaged from for the first page. There is humor, sadness, suspense, and tragedy - a little something for everyone who loves a good cozy mystery.